OK, I’m not that crazy about this Honest Trailer for Burton’s Batman (As fun and charismatic as Caesar Romero was, I really don’t see how you could possibly say that Nicholson was simply doing an impression of him; as far as I know Romero never did any scenes roasting someone with a hand buzzer or impaling someone’s neck) but I thought it was somewhat amusing.

"It is written among the limitless constellations of the celestial heavens, and in the depths of the emerald seas....the world which we see is an outward and visible dream of an inward and invisible reality."

Interesting how this video showcases all the unique angles Nolan adds to the Batman mythos while at the same time clearly displaying the utter lack of restraint when it comes to drawn-out, moralizing, Cliff-notes like speeches.

Just my opinion. I actually like much of Nolan’s writing, I just feel that he sometimes goes overboard in constantly spelling out people’s motivations, particularly in this trilogy. Especially with a character as mysterious and unknowable as Batman. I mean is the answer to why a grown man goes around dressing like a bat and fighting criminals THAT obvious?

In my opinion this really was the weakest aspect of Begins: to build a film around the idea that there’s some kind of formula for figuring out why Batman is who he is. It’s also kinda funny that, at least in my opinion, Cillian Murphy’s Scarecrow was the FAR more interesting character, mostly because Nolan DOESN’T attempt to pull together every single theory about exactly why the man loves literally scaring people to death. (Nolan and Murphy did both say that Crane had been bullied as a child, but it’s never actually referred to in the film. There wouldn’t have been ANYTHING wrong if the film HAD referred to it, say with a flashback, but suppose there had been countless monologues on every single reason Crane had become the Scarecrow? Would that really have made his character more “interesting”??). In Rises there were still many speeches but the characterization somehow felt a lot more subtle for some reason. Particularly with Bane and John Blake.

One more thing: my hands-down biggest problem with DK, bar none: Bruce wanting to stop being Batman and leave the mantle to someone else, the naturally heroic Harvey Dent. Total spit take. Is Nolan KIDDING? Batman is DRIVEN to be Batman out of obsession and torment. He would never “mull over” not only retiring from it, but actually choosing a replacement, and not just anyone but an unshakable member of the establishment. Batman is not part of the establishment. He never was. At the end of DK, Batman tells Gordon: “You’ll hunt me. Because that’s what needs to happen.” Duh! Batman is a vigilante...or at least he’s supposed to be one. That’s who he was in the comics for decades and who he was in Burton’s two films. Vigilantes get hunted down by the law. Comes with the territory. (In the 89 and 92 films it’s pretty clear right from the outset that even with the Batsignal, he’s outside of Gotham’s society on every level. Even after he gives Vicki the information on Joker’s chemicals, neither she nor anyone else seems to really trust him. There’s nothing outrageous or revolutionary about any of this. It’s been the foundation of the character since Bob Kane created him.)

Case in point:

Jim: Because he’s the hero Gotham deserves, but not the one it needs right now. So we’ll hunt him because he can take it. Because he’s not our hero. He’s a silent guardian. A watchful protector. A dark knight.

Um, no. He is NOT the hero we “deserve”. Batman’s world, our world, is a dark and frightening place. He IS our hero but he springs from a place of rage, pain, and grief. “We’ll hunt him because he can take it,” is said by Gordon as though it’s some huge revelation. Of course he can take it, he’s Batman. We’re already aware of his background and psychology (after all, this is the end of the second film!). And as far as being “the hero we deserve”, the world-view of Batman comics (and definitely the Burton films) completely contradicts this. Society in general and Gotham in particular is completely messed up. There’s selfishness, greed, brutality and avarice. The whole point is that we may not deserve Bats (in fact we probably don’t) but he’s here. And he’s fighting for us anyway.

Again: These are just my opinions. I’m open to all discussion!

"It is written among the limitless constellations of the celestial heavens, and in the depths of the emerald seas....the world which we see is an outward and visible dream of an inward and invisible reality."

My favorite shot was jumping off the invisible jet at the end, since it implied a shared universe with Wonder Woman, which I doubt was intentional but provided a fun 'meta' moment nonetheless.

However, it was Filmation that made the original Aquaman series, from which the logo and most of the shots are from. HB did SuperFriends and the like later on, and some might have been taken from those, but the design and style is Filmation all the way. Even Warners get this wrong on their DVDs, where the likes of Filmation and Ruby-Spears material has been marketed under the Hanna-Barbara Collection banner. Hey, if it looks like Saturday morning cartoons, right...?

"It is written among the limitless constellations of the celestial heavens, and in the depths of the emerald seas....the world which we see is an outward and visible dream of an inward and invisible reality."

I think I posted this vid years ago, but it’s just so cute! It’s basically the promos on the Batman 89 VHS, one Diet Coke commercial with Alfred/Michael Gough, plus an ad for a 900 number you have to call just to send for a catalog that you need in order to order Batman movie merchandise. Lol.

"It is written among the limitless constellations of the celestial heavens, and in the depths of the emerald seas....the world which we see is an outward and visible dream of an inward and invisible reality."

Oh my gosh! I finally discovered what that old show was that freaked me out so much as a little kid! Turns out it's a British serial, that was shown on the Canadian Saturday morning program Peanuts and Popcorn in the mid-1970s. I have been trying to remember the name of it for years. It's Chico the Rainmaker, aka The Boy with Two Heads! That theme song was reverberating in my brain for ages, except that I couldn't recall the actual name. I thought it was "George" (probably because of the similar chanting of "George, George, George of the Jungle..." That freaky little shrunken head used to give me nightmares! It does seem less scary now.

Well, here it is. The extremely hard to find full trailer for Mulan which Disney never included in any of its DVD releases. I saw this in theaters before Paulie as a kid and was pretty blown away by how "serious" it was. Interesting that the trailer has no Mushu or any of the film's jokes (of course, the final movie had plenty of humor in it):

"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift--that is why it's called the present."

Just a cool tip you can use for youtube videos: if you want to start at a specific point with your embed just add "?start=47" to the end of the url, where "47" is the place you want to start in seconds. Like so:

Dacey wrote:Well, here it is. The extremely hard to find full trailer for Mulan which Disney never included in any of its DVD releases. I saw this in theaters before Paulie as a kid and was pretty blown away by how "serious" it was. Interesting that the trailer has no Mushu or any of the film's jokes (of course, the final movie had plenty of humor in it):

I remember up to that point, the studio had still been on its post-Beauty&Beast "New Renaissance" kick, and beginning every 90's Disney trailer with montages of magical previous-film moments, and animators flipping through pencil tests:"From the studio that took you into a Whole New World, and invited you to Be Their Guest...Artists and animators have been hard at work creating the latest bit of magic..."

This was the first time they tried cutting right to the plot dynamics--Pocahontas and Hunchback had very much cooled the self-praising studio-identity "Renaissance" by '98.

"It is written among the limitless constellations of the celestial heavens, and in the depths of the emerald seas....the world which we see is an outward and visible dream of an inward and invisible reality."